Tens of thousands of rail commuters suffered major disruption into King's Cross today after problems with the overhead power lines at St Neots.

There will be major disruption all day with services home this evening also affected.

Late last night more than one kilometre of 25,000 cables were dragged down after they became caught in the overhead pantograph arm of a passing train.

They crashed across the train and all four lines but there were no injuries.

Stranded passengers were walked along the track to safety from one train and another towed back to Peterborough by a diesel engine.

In London, King's Cross station remained open all night as passengers trying to get home - including football fans from the Arsenal v Bayern Munich match - refused to leave an East Coast main line train.

The decision was taken to let them stay on the train and in the station all night.

It's just eight days since overhead lines collapsed near Radlett causing three days of major disruption into St Pancras International station.

In the latest incident there was no direct service on the East Coast main line between Kings Cross and Peterborough in either direction throughout the morning peak.

A limited service is expected later with diesel hauled trains replacing electric services.

First Capital Connect (FCC) services were suspended between Biggleswade and Peterborough.

Buses replaced trains between the two stations adding up to an hour to journeys.

Grand Central and First Hull Trains are running to and from London but with half hour delays.

All passengers using services to and from King's Cross are advised to check with their train company for travel updates.

A spokeswoman for Network Rail confirmed there would be disruption to services all day.

She said: "A driver of a passing train reported lines down at 21.27 last night.

"Services were halted on all four lines."

Engineers are on site but it is not known how long repairs will take.

FCC through-London services (Thameslink) suffered further disruption due to a signal failure at Purley.

Gatwick Express services were forced to run half-hourly instead of every 15 minutes to and from Victoria.

Southern services, including the Brighton line, were delayed by up to 15 minutes.